The thirst for convenient and scalable computing power has led many organizations to make use of cloud delivery models. This has resulted in a booming worldwide market for cloud computing that is expected to top $350 billion by 2022. With this kind of money in play, the competition to attract customers among cloud providers is fierce. 

One of the benefits of the public cloud computing model is the ability of multiple entities to take advantage of the immense resources made available by providers. This characteristic evens the research playing field by allowing academics and small startups to leverage the technical expertise and computing power of the cloud-tech giants. It would be financially impossible for these organizations to replicate the infrastructure that major cloud vendors have at their disposal. 

Artificial intelligence (AI) has had a tremendous impact on many areas of computing. As the technology matures, its influence continues to expand in the cloud computing world. AI is used by providers both to manage their resources and to offer advanced services to their customers. It is being woven into the fabric of computing services at a consistently increasing pace.